Oscars night in Yangon for budding photographers

Saturday night, 16 February, was Oscars night for new and upcoming photographers in Myanmar. The Lady herself, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi presented the award for best photo essay of the year at the IMS-supported Yangon Photo Festival

By Helle Wahlberg, IMS

The winning candidate, Sandra Wint Tun, won for her photo series of a paper mache dog placed in different street settings embodying the photographer’s own emotions of feeling an outsider amongst the people she lives.

“I’m glad it was a young woman who won,” said Aung San Suu Kyi, as she handed over the first prize, a Canon 6D camera.

Second place went to a powerful, lingering series of images of the suffering of the victims of one of Myanmar’s longest and bloodiest conflicts in Rakhine state. Amongst other prizes were workshops in France at the Rencontres d’Arles, the world most important photo festival.

The nominated photo essays were pre-selected by international photographers and the winners chosen by a jury consisting of amongst others, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Alexandre de Lesseps, IMS, the French ambassador to Myanmar, and acclaimed gallery owners. The winning essays were selected based on originality, emotional reach and technique.

Watch the 1st prize winner: My Endless Quest
[youtube width=”610″ height=”409″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQWEs-VVzmg[/youtube]

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Stories through pictures

The awards night was the culmination of three weeks of documentary photography exhibitions by award-winning photographers like Jonathan Torgovnic, Fernando Moleres, and Yann Layma and intensive photo journalism workshops for Burmese photo enthusiasts, beginners as well as more advanced. Also photography students from neighbouring countries like China were invited to exhibit their photography. Students of the more advanced workshop spend eight days under the guidance of photographer trainer and artistic director of the festival Christophe Loviny, learning about story-telling through photos.

“2012 was the first time the festival took place in an open political atmosphere,” says Christophe Loviny.

“This year, again, the students have been able to approach social topics which were previously forbidden to portray, or at best taboo. For some students, portraying life through the lens of a camera has been their first real opportunity to openly express deeper sides to themselves and show aspects of Burmese life which have not previously been documented.”

According to Christophe Loviny, it is the actual story-telling – the organising of thoughts into a storyline in pictures- that is the most challenging part for his students in Myanmar and elsewhere.

“The lack of access to good education in Myanmar is a major factor. Burma/Myanmar had the best universities in South East Asia until the sixties, but the military regimes have totally destroyed the education system. Therefore, for the students, it is not only a matter of learning to use new photographic equipment. It is mostly about learning to structure their thoughts, says Christophe Loviny.

Festival patron Daw Aung San Suu Kyi presents the first
The first prize winner receives her award from festival patron Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Photo: Tun Tun Aye

Photos central to freedom of expression

After more than fifty years of strict censorship, photography is now one of the means by which the new-found freedom of expression in the country can be explored. The aim of the photo-journalism workshops is thus to prepare and enable budding Myanmar journalists to compete at an international level with other photographers in the media world. The annual Yangon Photo Festival provides an important foundation for this. The IMS photo journalism programme in Myanmar has trained more than 150 photographers since 2009 and in particular most of the new generation of Myanmar photo-journalists who now work for international agencies such as Reuters and AFP, newspapers and news websites.

 

Background:

IMS has supported the Yangon Photo festival and trained more than 150 photo journalists since its beginning in 2009 and the photo journalism training now forms part of IMS’ three year programme in the country to develop the capacity of media workers in the country and support the further development of press freedom. IMS’ programme in Myanmar is funded by the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian governments.